A few hefty blows in the end, including a couple from the bat of Pat Cummins, helped Australia post a respectable target of 126, which may well not be enough against England.
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England gave arch-rivals Australia an indication of their dominance, bowling them out for 125 in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2021 encounter between the teams. Chris Jordan was the pick of the bowlers, accounting for three dismissals. Chris Woakes and Tymal Mills further made their presence felt, chipping in with two wickets apiece. Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone also accounted for a dismissal apiece. Skipper Aaron Finch was the top run-getter, accumulating 44 runs off 49 deliveries. Finch’s knock comprised of four boundaries. Ashton Agar was the second highest run-scorer, scoring 20 runs from as many deliveries. Wicketkeeper Matthew Wade was the third highest run-getter, accumulating 18 runs off the same number of balls.
Finch admitted that he would have opted to field after winning the toss, after being sent in to bat by England skipper Eoin Morgan.
“We would have done the same. Looks like a really good wicket, doesn’t change throughout. The trend has been batting second but we can put a big score on the board and defend it later on. One change. Ashton Agar comes in for Mitch Marsh. Just a bit of a restructure there. Going with the five specialist bowlers, nothing more to it than that. There was real confidence in the side the other night which was nice. We’ve kept getting better and better. Hopefully that can continue tonight. He (Warner) is a great player, been a great player for over 10 years, you can’t keep him down for too long,” stated the Australia cricketer as quoted by Cricbuzz.
Morgan termed his decision to field as being influenced by the presence of grass on the surface.
“We’ll have a bowl first. There is a bit of grass, it actually looks a good wicket. It’s been played on throughout the IPL as well. There could be dew factor later on, whether it comes or not who knows. We’ve got the same team. (On Mark Wood) Unsure as it stands now, he’s progressed quite nicely coming into every game, hasn’t been 100% yet. Delighted with the way we have started. Two comprehensive wins in the two games that we have played, a tougher test today against a good side,” said the England skipper.
Lineups:
Australia (Playing XI): David Warner, Aaron Finch(c), Glenn Maxwell, Steven Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade(w), Pat Cummins, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood.
England (Playing XI): Jason Roy, Jos Buttler(w), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan(c), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Tymal Mills.
David Miller was back at his absolute finishing best on Saturday as he played an explosive cameo to win a nail-biting match for South Africa against Sri Lanka in the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. The pressure was just too much for Lahiru Kumara who was asked to bowl the final over and defend 15 runs. Wanindu Hasaranga displayed an exceptional performance with the ball on the day as he picked an incredible hat-trick but it was in vain. Hasaranga dismissed the likes of Aiden Markram, skipper Temba Bavuma, and Dwaine Pretorius to completely disrupt the Proteas’ run chase.
